“It was a scary ride, I’ll tell you that,” said Mark Nelson of Wisconsin as he waits with his semi-trailer after it overturned during high winds and a possible tornado on Interstate 44 westbound at Villa Ridge on Friday, March 14, 2025.
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
BALLWIN — Emergency responders worked through the night as storms blew through the St. Louis region, knocking out power, sparking brushfires and scattering debris.
There were no reports of fatalities and only minor injuries as of Saturday morning, according to St. Louis County Executive Sam Page.
Crews are still assessing the damage Saturday, but believe the neighborhoods hit hardest were in Black Jack, Bridgeton and Florissant, St. Louis County officials said at an 8 a.m. press conference.
Page declared a state of emergency in the county and said early assessments indicate the damage is the most extensive since the Good Friday tornado in 2011.
The Wolff family home on Scotch Drive in Bridgeton is one of several slammed by both storms 14 years apart.
Adriana Wolff, her husband and two children ages 5 and 11 felt the house shaking from the basement Friday night. When they went upstairs, the roof was mostly gone. The carport collapsed, windows blew out and there is a fresh crack in the foundation. A Barbie house, a birthday present from just a few days ago, was tossed into the backyard.
“Materials come and go, but I’m glad we’re all OK,” Wolff said.
Two people were killed and multiple people injured after an outbreak of tornados in the Bakersfield area in Ozark County near the Arkansas border, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
The National Weather Service said at least five tornadoes were reported in Missouri on Friday, including a possible touchdown in west St. Louis County near Clarkson and Clayton roads.
Several buildings were damaged in the storm, including a strip mall in Rolla, where a tornado was reported Friday afternoon. About 10 people reported minor injuries after a tornado hit a gas station in Villa Ridge in Franklin County.
In Bridgeton, homes in the area of Avery Lane and Benedetta Drive (St. James Estates and St. Gerard Park) saw “extensive damage” and access to the neighborhood was closed, police said.
The winds were so strong they broke off a piece of a chandelier inside the home of Deondre Wilkins in Bridgeton. A “bone-cracking” sound was a 30-foot tree that fell in the side yard, narrowly missing the house.
“You could feel it,” Wilkins said.
Dozens of neighbors were assessing and cleaning up the damage Saturday in the neighborhood near the Bridgeton Recreation Center. A small box truck was tipped over, roof shingles were torn off and multiple trees were uprooted.
Residents can call 211 to report non-life threatening damage from the storm, said Michele Ryan, director of St. Louis County Office of Emergency Management.
County officials say they are trying to clear roads as quickly as possible but they know there are areas that haven’t been attended to yet. They are also getting reports of people driving around downed power lines, which is incredibly dangerous. Go a different way, Ryan said.
“It’s not worth the five minutes you’re going to save,” she said.
While MetroLink was running on schedule, MetroBus and Metro Call-A-Ride customers were asked to allow extra time because drivers may need to reroute around areas with downed limbs, power lines and other obstructions. MetroBus routes in the Maryland Heights/Westport area and part of North County among those affected by reroutes. The 94 Page westbound is not able to serve Page between Lindbergh and Ball Road at this time, Metro Transit said in a release Saturday morning.
Ameren at 9 a.m. reported about 142,000 customers without service — 109,000 in Missouri and 32,000 in Illinois.
The storm system that raked through Missouri continued east on Saturday. The National Weather Service issued multiple tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings for areas in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and Texas.
Sarah Gassen, Katie Kull, Robert Cohen and Colleen Schrappen of the Post-Dispatch and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hail falls in Webster Groves just north of Crestwood on Friday, Mar. 14, 2025.
Charles Harris packs some of his belongings into his damaged vehicle on Friday, March 14, 2025, as his apartment bedroom on Avant Drive in Hazelwood is exposed after a tornado ripped through the Chez Paree complex just of Lindbergh. “I heard those winds getting real strong. So I got in my bathtub. A few seconds later the roof got ripped off the bathroom,” he said. He said the roof from his building landed on his parked car, cracking the windshield.
Christian Gooden, Post-Dispatch
A crew with Accurate Tree & Landscaping LLC work to clear one of two downed trees on Friday, March 14, 2025, blocking Ninetieth Street in Florissant after a tornado ripped through the St. Louis region causing widespread damage.
Christian Gooden, Post-Dispatch
Robert Cohen – 314-340-8280
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